


Sleeping with Strangers

by apotropaicsymbol



Category: Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Implied/Referenced Alcoholism, M/M, Unrequited Crush, Ziggy POV, crack with feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-02
Updated: 2019-09-02
Packaged: 2020-10-05 18:34:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 676
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20493353
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/apotropaicsymbol/pseuds/apotropaicsymbol
Summary: Ziggy's neighbor is so hot it's like he's beyond human.That might not be the only thing about him that's beyond human.





	Sleeping with Strangers

So what if Eddie Brock is another of the washed-up ex- or semi-celebrities that litter California. Ziggy finds his weird neighbor so unbearably hot that even the terrifying face he made once was probably a bad trip, dude, and ever since his girlfriend broke up with him he’s just been. So lonely. He’s never had the guts to pursue a guy (maybe never will), but there’s something approachable about Eddie. It’s so easy to feel comfortable with him, joke around with him. It’s probably what made him such a good interviewer.

It’s too weird to tell anyone, but there’s more and more strange stuff happening around Eddie. Eddie having reflexes and strength that he shouldn’t have - how the fuck can he carry that many shopping bags at once? He drives like a maniac. It’s honestly terrifying to see him swerve into the street at 75, 90 miles an hour, but he never causes a crash. And sometimes, when the light conditions are just right, there’s a pale shine in the back of his eyes. Like a dog. Like a cat.

That's not even mentioning how after six continuous months of the dude going on near-daily benders, there's not a single beer bottle to be found in his recycling anymore. What there is instead is, like, fucking _sheep bones_? And _pig bladders_? OK, well maybe not bladders. Not that Ziggy would know what pig bladders look like - and that time he saw a wadded-up piece of paper in the alley and screamed because he thought it was an eyeball was a _one-off_, OK. He was just taken by surprise. But it smells so goddamn bad in the hallway sometimes because of...whatever Eddie's doing in there. Beating his meat. But not like, in the normal way. Mrs. Chen's meats were always so-so, stuff she got from bigger outlets further inland, but a few months ago she ended up hiring a literal in-house butcher. Guess who the number one customer is.

Well, let's just say that if Eddie was anyone else, there would be _serious problems_.

Sometimes Ziggy awakens at night. Quiet, alone in the dark, he looks up at the ceiling. And he hears Eddie speaking quietly, chuckling. Hears another voice answer back. Something about this voice raises the hair on the back of his neck, some ancient mammal part of him recognizing a threat, but there’s something else about it that’s familiar, friendly. He wants to escape from it and run to it for comfort at the same time.

He does neither. He lies in bed and watches the spiderweb in the corner, gray threads in a purple darkness. 

(Who is he talking to?

Who are you, Eddie?)

Ziggy’s done a lot of fucking drugs but - he’s never had a trip like that -

_Don't look at Wikipedia, don't look at Wikipedia, don't look at - _

It doesn't matter. It doesn't tell him anything.

This is not a delusion, or if it is, he's truly fucked this time. It just seems more and more like he lives in a cardboard world, a world with a secret, a world that laughs at his questions. Even the craziest conspiracy boards don't have anything on Eddie. Nobody else knows about this.

It's just him. A cardboard world, with real sunlight poking through.

Who knows? It’s not likely that aliens _and_ demons _and_ ghosts all exist at the same time, but one of the three probably does. And if one of them lives next door to you, you’d probably want them on your side.

Eddie’s smile is awful. Crooked and charming, warm and conspiratorial, like he’s sharing a secret joke only the two of you know. But Ziggy doesn’t know, that’s the problem, and if a smile could break his heart that’d be the one. He tries to look hard every time he sees it. Drink it in, never let that memory go.

Sometimes he tells himself he’s counting how many teeth Eddie has. Sometimes he tells himself he’s overwhelmed by how beautiful Eddie is.

He’s not sure which unsettles him more.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading. Constructive criticism is appreciated.


End file.
